The St. John’s $100 Commemorative, 1983.

    When Jacques Cartier made first contact (1534) with the aboriginals in what is now Baie de Chaleur between the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec, he was mildly surprised to find that they were already somewhat educated in trade, demanding anything of iron in return for beaver robes. It’s highly possible this was due to previous contacts with European fishermen.

    If so, the fishing industry was shrouded in secrecy – about everything. Following the exploratory voyages of John Cabot (born Giovanni Caboto of Venice) in the service of Henry VII of England in 1497 and the immediate succeeding years to the general area of the Maritimes, word got around of the vast fishery in and around the “Island of Baccalos” (literally, “Island of Cod”: Newfoundland). Surreptitiously, starting by ones and twos, fishing boats slipped out of English, French and Portuguese harbours to explore the potential of these grounds – and found them to be everything reported. By 1550, entire fleets were sailing to the Grand Banks and vicinity each spring and as many as 10,000 fishermen might be there in the summer. No one was giving away secrets and if silence wouldn’t do, outright lies might serve. Consequently, the European powers did little to secure these areas and, undisturbed, the merchant-outfitters of Bristol and Southampton in England, St. Malo in France as well as Basques and Portugese waxed fat on the cod, the “beef of the sea” - especially as the Pope had decreed Friday to be “Fish Day”.

 
   Above is an inset from a map published by Bolognino Zaltierti in Venice,1566. This gives an idea of how confused even mapmakers were. “Terra de Baccalos” is not shown as an island; the Indian towns Cartier discovered – Stadacona and Hochelaga – are not shown as being on the St. Lawrence River; that river is shown as being a short one further south emptying into a lake alongside “Larcadia” (today’s Maritimes); (hopefully) there is a Northwest Passage shown and not far west (unshown here), the continent shares a small “Gulf of China” with Asia.

    Meanwhile, the Dutch mapmaker, Gerardus Mercator – inventor of the “Mercator Projection” shown below -  was much more successful in separating fact from fiction and published this map only three years later, 1569. This was probably the map consulted by European mariners of the time.

    It’s necessary to note that British fishermen were luckily forced to convert a liability into a considerable asset. Other nations were able to use lots of salt to preserve their catches but England had neither good salt deposits nor a climate that allowed them to produce sea salt by evaporating brine. Therefore they developed the “flake” system in Newfoundland. The fresh cod were cleaned and split open, then laid on stages covered with brush (called “flakes”) where they were only lightly rubbed with salt (just enough to  

Gerardus Mercator's map of 1569.

prevent spoilage) and dried in the sun. The resulting product would keep indefinitely so long as it was dry and easily reconstituted nearly to its original quality by soaking in fresh water. English dried cod became known for its superior quality and accordingly priced. Before long,  the  other  fishing  nations followed suit and each summer the beaches were crowded with the flake stages – and, since it was the best sites to the earliest arrivals, there arose a kind of race every spring.

*          *          *
    Humphrey Gilbert, born in 1537 or 1539, was one of Queen Elizabeth’s “sea dogs”. From a family of means, he was educated at Eton and possibly also Oxford. He was the older step-brother of Walter Raleigh who later also made his mark in colonization. A soldier by trade, Gilbert served the Lord Deputy of Ireland (by whom he was knighted in 1570) and at times served as M.P. for Plymouth along with his friend John Davis (who was later to explore and have named after him Davis Strait).  In  the 1560s,  while serving

Sir Humphrey Gilbert From an engraving by Willem and Magdalena van de Passe made in 1620.

 

with an English  force  in  La  Havre  (then  Havre-de-Grâce),  he is believed to have met and been captivated by the stories of one of Cartier’s old sailors. From this date he successfully set out to make himself the authority on America and in 1566 wrote “A Discourse of a Discoverie for a New Passage to Cataia (i.e., “Cathay” = China)” which was the beginning of the hunt for the Northwest Passage. From this time he petitioned Queen Elizabeth time and again for a license to explore and colonize. In 1578, he was granted the right to found a colony in eastern North America with Gilbert to hold sway for 600 miles in any direction. It was a failure and, as usual, the grantee – in this case Gilbert – bore most of the cost and lost most of his personal fortune. Undeterred, Gilbert continued to exercise his patent, selling his rights north of 50° to Dr. John Dee and peddling vast estates (totaling some 8,500,000 acres in all) to a group of wealthy English Roman Catholics with the view to founding their own sub-colony. Finally Gilbert decided on an area more certain in its potential – the former “Isle of Baccalos”, Cabot’s “New found lande”. It was therefore decided to follow the well-known track of the fishing fleets across the Atlantic rather than an unknown course further south.

    After a number of delays, the fleet set sail 11 June 1583, consisting of the flagship Delight (120 tons, partially owned by Sir John Gilbert, Humphrey’s elder brother); the Bark Raleigh (200 tons commanded by Walter Raleigh, Humphrey’s younger stepbrother); the Golden Hind (40 tons, named in honour of Francis Drake’s ship, Edward Hayes, master, who left us the account of the voyage); Swallow (40 tons, Maurice Browne, master, carrying on board the Hungarian Stephanus Parmenius who was the expedition’s “naturalist”); Squirrel (only 8 or 10 tons, Humphrey’s own ship but which had already made the return crossing in 1580).

    Almost at once, the Bark Raleigh was forced to turn back and on July 23, when nearly to the island, the fleet became separated in fog but managed to reunite in St. John’s Harbour on 3 August. At that time, the Delight stood outside the harbour since the master, Richard Clarke, had committed piracy against the Portuguese fishermen at St. John’s in the previous year and the annually-chosen “port admiral” (an Englishman this time) refused to allow him to land. But Sir Humphrey waved his royal commission and his squadron was able to land. At this time, there were an additional 36 fishing ships – Portuguese, French, Basque and English – in the harbour.

    On 5 August, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert took formal possession of Newfoundland – and all points 200 leagues (= 600 miles = 968 km) to the north and south of St. John’s Harbour. This was the very first colony in what was to become the British Empire, a fact largely overlooked. As token of the Queen’s possession, a wooden pillar was set up with the royal arms in lead attached. Gilbert proclaimed the colony to be under English law and issued fishing licenses to the ships in harbour (in return for provisions – now badly depleted - for his own fleet ). There was quiet acquiescence from the fishermen; after all, Gilbert’s ships were also armed. 

    After a short period of exploring the Newfoundland coast (during which his Saxon mining expert, one “Daniel”, collected samples of iron ore and what he said was silver), the fleet had to make to the south in order to proclaim possession there as well before the patent ran out in June 1584. But on the windy night of 29th August, the little fleet found themselves in the shoal water of the notorious West Bar (a sort of reef) of Sable Island. The Delight struck and was lost, only 15 men being saved, not including Parmenius, “the Saxon, Daniel”, the ore samples and the naturalist’s notes and “collections”.

    The Swallow had already been sent home with the sick and recalcitrant (including a couple of the captains) and following the Delight disaster, it was decided to return to England for the winter. There were now but two ships: Capt. Clarke’s Golden Hind and the little Squirrel – on which, for some reason, Gilbert insisted on travelling. Nearly in mid-Atlantic, they encountered a violent storm and near midnight, Sept. 8/9, the stern lantern of the Squirrel was seen to crest a wave – and then no sign of the little ship after.

    Although gone, Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s influence continued. Walter Raleigh, Gilbert’s younger stepbrother had the patent reissued in his favour in 1584 and, excluding Newfoundland from it, went on to institute British colonies further south in the “Carolinas”. Sir John Dee sold – or at least relinquished – his grant for the territories north of 50° to Humphrey’s younger brother, Adrian, who used it to back the explorations of John Davis for the Northwest Passage, Humphrey’s main passion all along. Explorations by Davis (three voyages, 1585-7) and earlier ones by Martin Frobisher (1576-8) directly lead to the discovery of Hudson’s Bay by a third British explorer, Henry Hudson, in 1610. Some sixty years later,  “The Company of Adventurers Operating out of Hudson’s Bay” would hold sway over much of North America. And England never relinquished her claim to Newfoundland or the inshore fisheries until 1949, even though the area was at times occupied by the French.

*    *    *    *    *    *

             Original design for a “Dollar”                    Reverse as it appeared on the $100 NCLT

 

    As the establishment of England’s first overseas possession, the date of August 5th, 1583, should bulk large; but it does not, largely overlooked and unknown in both Canada and Britain. Some Canadian histories scarcely mention Gilbert; other ignore him completely.

    The sense of “small importance” continues on with the Canadian coinage of today – although the event was commemorated in 1983. As struck, the design by artist John Jaciw gives the impression that we are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. John’s, Newfoundland – nothing more. From his original drawing, it’s evident his reverse was intended to appear on either the nickel or silver dollar of that year but that was changed. The nickel dollar of 1983 continued to carry the usual “Voyageur” design while the  silver dollar  commemorates  the  “World  University  Games” held in Edmonton that

Master die before application of lettering.                        Same die with lettering added

 

year.  The St. John’s  design  was  shrunken  and relegated to the gold  $100 NCLT series
with 83,128 issued as cased proofs. For the first time, incidentally, the word CANADA also appears on the edge along with the reeding.  Perhaps also of interest is the fact that Jaciw’s original plaster model carried no lettering – that was entered by the engraver of the reverse die, Walter Ott.

 

Wayne Jacobs is numismatic expert. He is the award winning author of numerous articles. He is the secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.